You've Begun to Feel Like Home
by shipper-swabbie
Summary: Elliot gets the flu. JD takes care of her. Total fluff. JD/Elliot


A/N: More JD and Elliot fluff! Um, This is just a short little one-shot. I sort of just wanted to write a JD-takes-care-of-Elliot story. I know that this has been done before, so in no way am I trying to pass this off as an original idea, just a fun one :D

Enjoy and **please review**... OH! And Happy Valentine's Day!

OHH! The title comes from The Fray song "Look After You" for obvious reasons.

Disclaimer: I own only the words. The characters, lyrics and Mattel Toy company are not mine. Never was, never will be.

-

I'm a doctor, so when someone I love gets sick, I actually get a little excited. Not because I enjoy seeing my loved ones ill, it's because I get an opportunity to make them better. I can diagnose them, comfort them and basically give them the best care that family can offer.

When Elliot got sick, I was not excited.

For starters, Elliot is a doctor too. This means that when she gets sick, she tends to understate her symptoms. This, I believe is because she _is_ a doctor. She doesn't reach out for help when she's sick because she believes that, due to her line of work, she does not require the help of others.

"Well, I have news for you Elliot, I'll be the one taking care of you today."

I think she tried to argue with me, but it only really came out as a groan of agony. I sat next to her in bed stroking her hair.

"This way," I continued, "you can stay in bed all day and never have to get up at all. I'll even dig out a bed-pan for you so you don't even have to get up for your twosies!"

Her only response was a weak glare of scepticism, followed with an even weaker, "Ew." And then she threw up.

Thankfully, Elliot had caught her fever early and we had placed a bucket next to the bed. She put it to good use.

A few heaves later, Elliot turned back to me, and I met her half way with a damp facecloth we had prepared earlier in anticipation of all the vomit. I wiped her face gently and looked down at her sympathetically, "I'm not going to lie to you Elliot, you look like hell."

She sighed deeply and fell back onto her pillow. Apparently, movement was a bad idea because she immediately sat back up to vomit a couple more times.

I rubbed her back and said softly, "I'll go get you some water, El, hang tight for a a second."

I made my way to the kitchen to retrieve an exceptionally large glass of water. When I returned to the bedroom, the first thing I noticed was that my girlfriend was no longer in bed, "Elliot?" I asked, but the retching from the bathroom was the only response I needed. I went into to the bathroom and eventually (four back rubs, and half a dozen dry heaves later), I managed to guide my flu-ridden girlfriend back to bed with extra blankets and a fresh bucket.

Elliot managed to sleep for almost ten hours before she had to return to the bathroom. When I went in to go check on her, I found her leaning over the toilet taking deep breaths.

"Hey, cutie."

"JD-" She groaned.

"Ah, verbal communication. I think that's a good sign."

"Don't jinx it, or I'll sneeze on you."

"Has your temperature gone down at all?"

"Holding firm at 102." She replied, sounding heartbreakingly hoarse. I silently handed her a fresh glass of water, which she sipped carefully.

"What time is it?" She asked me after swallowing.

"Almost three."

"In the afternoon?"

"Nope."

"What? JD, what are you still doing up? You have work tomorrow."

"Wrong again."

"JD-"

"Ah- ah. As long as your temperature is on the wrong side of 100, I'm not going anywhere."

"JD, I'll be--" Of course she was interrupted by vomit.

"Oh, Elliot," I said softly as I slid off the side of the bathtub to sit beside her on the linoleum, "Were you going to say 'fine'?"

I would have been more sympathetic, but she just helped me prove my point.

She groaned, vomited again then coughed out a "Shut up, JD," before sipping more water.

"Elliot," I started gently, "I know you're a doctor and you don't think you need anyone to take care of you, but I just wanna remind you that I too am a doctor and in fact it is in my nature to take care of sick people. Elliot, you currently are a sick people. I_ want_ to take care of you. It's important to me. You're important to me."

She looked up at me for a long minute and nodded her head slowly, "You wanna know something awesome?"

"Always."

"It's been almost two minutes and I haven't thrown up. If I can do this for like, eight more minutes, I may be able to move again."

"You're right, that is awesome. I'll start my watch."

Thankfully, she did make it through ten minutes without throwing up again, so I took her back to bed and tucked her in.

"Do you want to try and keep some soup down? I made some chicken broth a couple hours ago."

"Thanks JD, but I'll just stick with water for a while."

"Whatever you say, doc. So you wanna try and sleep again?"

She shook her head weakly, "No. I could go for a really bad movie, though."

"Sounds perfect. Here's the remote. I'll be back in a minute, I'm gonna go get you some fresh water." I kissed her forehead, and stood up to leave.

"JD?"

"Yeah?"

"If I didn't have vomit breath, I would definitely kiss you right now."

"And for not kissing me, I'd like to thank you."

"I hate you.

"I love you too, snookems."

I was just on my way out of the kitchen when the phone started ringing. This was odd- mostly because it was three thirty in the AM.

"Hello?"

"Listen Newbie, sadly for you, I am actually _not_ making a late night booty-call to my favourite gal. In fact, young Jennifer Dylan, bless her heart, decided that she will now be spending her evenings inducing insomnia in her poor ol' pop and let me tell you something, when someone annoys me, I tend to return the favour; _but _since I love my daughter, I decided to pester someone who I _don't _love- in fact quite the opposite actually, do you hear what I'm saying here?"

"Yes sir, you despise me. I get that."

"Well isn't _that_ just dandy- I honestly could not be happier 3:45 on a Monday morning. Now tell me Newbie, will you and your Mattel manufactured lady friend be gracing us with your presence this morning?"

"Dr. Cox, Elliot is really sick."

"Well that's nice, but just let me tell you a little something there Kimberly, Barbie is a doctor, so I do believe that means she knows a thing or two about being sick-"

"Doctor Cox-"

"Now I know that may come as a surprise to you considering _your _level of expertise, but I do believe she's more than qualified to be alone for 8-10 hours-"

"Dr. Cox, please-"

"Believe it of not Newbie, there's actually a whole hospital full of sick people that actually _need_ help-"

"Dr. Cox, I've already made my decision. This is where I need to be right now."

He paused for a long moment before I heard an exasperated sigh on the opposite end of the phone line.

"You know Janice, you make me sick, you really do."

Yes! Victory!

"But listen carefully Newbie, if you enjoy your job, you won't make a habit of taking 'personal days' to actually stay home to and do... well, your job. You just go ahead and let me know when you wanna start taking care of the people who are smart enough _not _to spoon with you late at night when your vagina aches and you just want to feel close to someone."

In between the searing insults and bitter sarcasm, I took that phone call as a kind gesture.

"Thank you, sir, I won't-"

Dial-Tone. I shouldn't have expected more than that, but I know the love is there... Somewhere. I hope.

I sighed and returned to the bedroom.

"Who was on the phone?" Elliot asked me lazily once I entered.

"Oh, just doctor Cox."

"I bet _that_ conversation was fun."

"For one of us, yes."

"Well, I found the perfect bad movie to watch."

"Let's hear it." I said, crawling into bed next to her.

"1987, Spanish dubbed, English subtitles, made-for-TV movie."

"Exactly what we need."

I grabbed a damp, cool cloth from the bedside table and placed it on her forehead.

"Should I make some popcorn?"

"Oh, God," she coughed gracelessly, "Don't even talk to me about solid food right now."

I just laughed and brushed her damp hair off of her fever flushed face, "You really are beautiful, you know."

But she had fallen asleep.

-

Three days later, Elliot was finally feeling like herself again. She shuffled out of the bedroom wrapped in a blanket and sporting her favourite fluffy slippers.

"It's amazing how we take things for granted, like showers and breathing through our noses."

"It's alive!" I cried, for dramatic affect, I pulled the curtain from the window revealing a beautiful sunny day, "Hey Elliot, do you remember this? It's sunlight."

"Is that the best you could do JD? Really?"

She got me on that one. I've done better. I should change the subject, "Are you coming to work today?"

"I think I'll wait one more day, just to be safe."

"Sounds great." I kissed her lightly, "I'll see you tonight then?"

"Yeah... um, JD?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to tell you that, even though I t_otally_ didn't need your help these past couple of days, I, um," She paused for a second, "I kind of wanted it." She stepped a little closer to me, pulling my hands around her waist. "You did so much for me, and I'm really grateful for everything you did- You're the best boyfriend in the world. I um... I don't know what I would have done without you." She leaned in and gave me the softest, sexiest kiss ever. When she pulled away, I must of had the stupidest grin on my face, because she immediately laughed at me.

"Hey," I said to her as she made her way back to the bedroom, "It's my job, remember?"

She just rolled her eyes at me and shook her head lightly as she walked away, "I love you too, snookems."

-

A/N2: Pretty please review? Nothing would make me happier!


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